Three Major Dissociative Disorders
Causes & Symptoms of Amnesia, Fugue & Multiple Personality Disorders
Dissociative disorders, characterized by sudden loss of memory or change in identity, include amnesia, fugue states, & multiple personalities.
Have you ever had a sense of unreality, of being detached from your body? This is a dissociative state and it's similar to feeling like you’re watching yourself in a movie. This sense of unreality is normal if it happens once in awhile. However, if these dissociative states are severe and prolonged they indicate a psychological disorder.
The Definition of Dissociative Disorders
Dissociative disorders occur when a person becomes dissociated or separated from previous memories, thoughts, and feelings. Amnesia, for instance, occurs when a person experiences a sudden loss of memory; multiple personality disorder occurs when he experiences a change in identity. Extreme physical or psychological stress is the typical cause of dissociative disorders
Types of Dissociative Disorders: Amnesia, Fugue & Multiple Personality
Amnesia. Amnesia is the failure to recall events or loss of memory. The causes of amnesia can include head trauma, alcoholic intoxication, or even intolerable psychological stress. To be precise, psychogenic amnesia is the dissociative disorder caused by severe psychological stress, such as being a prisoner of war, kidnapping victim, or victim of child abuse.
Symptoms of amnesia include disorientation and forgetfulness. Amnesiacs forget who they are, but remember how to walk, talk, count, drive, and so on. Usually, amnesia vanishes as quickly as it appeared.
Fugue. Like amnesia, a fugue state involves forgetting but it's characterized by fleeing one’s home and identity for days, months, or even years. “Fugue” means flight. Psychological stress causes this dissociative disorder; fugue is a method of self-preservation. Also like amnesia, people dealing with a fugue state often awaken as quickly as they disappeared. After the fugue state has passed, people generally don’t remember what happened during the fugue.
Multiple Personality Disorder. This dissociative disorder is characterized by the massive separation between self and ordinary consciousness. People with multiple personality disorder usually have two or more distinct personalities: one is restrained and dull, and the second is typically impulsive and uninhibited.
People with multiple personality disorder are typically not violent or separated into good versus bad personalities, despite the “Jekyll & Hyde” stereotype. Most psychologists have not treated or even seen multiple personality disorder, which is quite rare.
All three dissociative disorders (amnesia, fugue, and multiple personality disorder) are ways of coping with psychological stress. These psychological disorders aren't easily treated by medication alone; psychotherapy can help smooth the journey back to the self.
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Source: Psychology by David G. Myers.
